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Here's What Audi Sacrificed To Make A Luxury Car For Under $30,000

Audi is going after a new segment of the market — the first time luxury buyer — and that calls for a reasonably affordable car.

The result is the 2015 A3, which starts for just $29,900. Last week, I headed out to Silicon Valley to test the sedan on roads populated by the potential Audi customers: The young guys and gals who are finally making real money and want to show it by driving something other than a fully loaded Honda Accord.

Audi did a good job keeping some nice features standard in the A3, including a panoramic roof, 4G LTE connectivity, and real leather. The base engine option is a perfectly adequate 1.8-liter four-cylinder that produces 170 horsepower, good for a 0 to 60 mph time of 7.2 seconds. One journalist on our trip actually preferred it to the more expensive 2.0-liter.

But pushing a luxury car below the $30,000 mark requires making sacrifices. Sit down in the A3, and you quickly notice it's not a top-of-the-line choice. Here's what we missed the most:

Power seats: Yes, you have to engage muscles to move your seat backward or forward.